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Lender Affirm Prices IPO Above Range to Raise $1.2 billion

Lender Affirm Is Said to Be Planning to Price IPO Above Range

Lender Affirm Prices IPO Above Range to Raise $1.2 billion
Affirm Holdings Inc. website home screen on a laptop computer arranged in Little Falls, New Jersey, U.S. (Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg)

Affirm Holdings Inc., which provides installment loans to online shoppers, priced its U.S. initial public offering above its marketed range to raise $1.2 billion.

In the first major U.S. technology listing this year, Affirm sold 24.6 million shares for $49 each, according to a statement on Wednesday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. The San Francisco-based company had marketed the shares for $41 to $44 apiece, a range that it had raised Monday from $33 to $38.

The IPO gives Affirm a market value of $11.9 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company’s fully diluted valuation, including options and restricted stock units, is about $15 billion.

Affirm is the first of several companies set to go public this week after a hot year for IPOs in 2020 led by Airbnb Inc.and DoorDash Inc. Online marketplace for secondhand luxury goods Poshmark Inc., pet supply retailer Petco Animal Supplies Inc., mobile game developer Playtika Holdings Inc. and auto service and supply company Driven Brands Holdings Inc. are all on deck for IPOs.

Lender Affirm Prices IPO Above Range to Raise $1.2 billion

Affirm was founded in 2012 by Max Levchin, who also co-founded PayPal Holdings Inc. Levchin is the company’s single biggest shareholder, according to filings. Other large owners include Jasmine Ventures, a fund affiliated with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC Pte, along with Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Shopify Inc.

More than 6,500 merchants use Affirm’s platform, according to its prospectus.

For the third quarter, Affirm had a net loss of $15 million on revenue of $174 million, compared with a loss of $31 million on revenue of $88 million during the same period in 2019, according to its filing.

Home exercise company Peloton Interactive Inc. was by far Affirm’s most important merchant partner, accounting for 30% of its total revenue in the third quarter. Its top 10 merchants including Peloton produced about 37% of Affirm’s revenue during the period, creating the risk its business could be adversely affected by the loss of any of those partners, according to the filing.

Affirm postponed its IPO from December alongside game developer Roblox Inc., which has since decided to pursue a direct listing.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Allen & Co. led Affirm’s IPO. Its shares are expected to begin trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol AFRM.

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